Paul explained: “She came to the shop unexpectedly in May and said she was closing it. She just said, ‘Get your stuff and go’.

“I only had three minutes to grab my things and get out.

“She had told me I could keep the shop going, because my dad had always enjoyed keeping it alive. We opened it together.

“It struggled sometimes, but there were always booming periods around Halloween and New Year. But she couldn’t care less about the legacy or the business.

*NEIL JONES

Penniless . . . Paul Jnr was cut out of the will and is now jobless

*NEIL JONES

End of an era . . . party shop in Wigan was a joint business between father and son

“She told me she would look after me and help pay my rent and bills afterwards.

“But, like my inheritance, I’m yet to see a single penny.

“I had no money to pay my rent. I was close to being homeless until I worked something out with my landlord. A girl working with us was three or four months pregnant and needed the money and work. But Debbie didn’t care, she just turfed us out.

“She said it was losing money, but there’s still a seven-year lease on the shop.

“It costs around £25,000 a year with rent and bills. So how closing it down to save money works I’ll never know.”

PA:Press Association

National hero . . . late magician Paul Daniels with Tony Blair

Getty Images

Out of the hat . . . Paul Daniels with a white rabbit in his hat on stage

What an honour . . . Paul Snr was flanked by glamorous assistant Debbie for 15 years between 1979 and 1994

Paul Jnr is the eldest of three sons from the magician’s first marriage to Jacqueline Skipworth. They divorced in 1975.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he spent ten years working with his dad.

He started out as an assistant stage manager helping to set up tricks, eventually taking part in some.

He performed at prestigious venues such as the Prince of Wales Theatre and the Savoy Theatre in London’s West End.

The only person she’s looked after is herself

Paul Jnr said: “I’ll never forget those years. It was a roller-coaster journey being on tour, playing to thousands of people.

“Sometimes I’d ride the motorbike that vanishes into thin air.

“I would share a dressing room with a vanishing rabbit. It was bizarre. But brilliant.

“But as the years went on we started seeing each other less.

“We had a bit of a falling out from around 1996 to 2002. I couldn’t even tell you what it was about, just one of those stupid things that gets out of hand.”

BBC

Hot to foxtrot . . . Paul Daniels with Strictly beauty Ola Jordan

PA:Press Association

Trickster comic . . . Paul Daniels regularly referred to her on his shows as the lovely Debbie McGee

PA:Press Association

Guess who? . . . Paul Daniels chuckles on stage in rehearsals for his West End role

During the fall-out Paul Jnr’s home was raided by cops, who found 89 cannabis plants.

He was convicted of cultivating the drugs, which had a street value of £89,000, and got a 12-month community order.

But he said it was a blessing in disguise as it prompted him and his dad to patch things up.

He said: “We hadn’t spoken for four or five years but when he heard we started speaking again. It became something that brought us closer together again. Rather than wash his hands of me, he brought me back into the fold. We became father and son again.

“We did what we could to see each other — mainly on birthdays or other occasions.

“But when he got sick I was stuck running this shop. The last time I saw him was a week before he left hospital and returned home.

“I never saw him again. I didn’t want to see him getting frailer and frailer. I wanted to remember him in his prime. It was tough losing him. The funeral was very emotional. We had an ice cream truck on his lawn because he loved them. The day was a blur.